Guests

Audience Questions

Audience QuestionsHour 1

Dutch bought a Panasonic VHS to DVD burner, but it won't play on any other DVD players. Leo says that's because Dutch made a multi-session DVD. Or, it could be that he forgot to finalize the DVD. It also could be a different type of DVD, such as DVD-RAM, which could confuse a normal DVD player.

Some phones can enter "host mode" so it could read another drive plugged into it, but Leo isn't sure his phone is capable of that. He could check out this article at XDA-Developers.com to see if his phone supports it. If it does, he's going to need a USB Host cable (miniUSB connector on one end, and a standard female USB plug on the other). Generally, it's only the newer smartphones that have that capability.

Most Android phones will be able to connect in "disk mode", which means the phone will connect to a computer as if it were an external drive. Then Neil could copy his files to it from his computer. He could also upload his files to the cloud and access them that way. Image files can be uploaded to PicasaWeb, and Documents could be uploaded to DropBox for example.

Audience QuestionsHour 2

It could be a malware issue. She could try booting into safe mode by holding down the F8 key, or maybe even the escape key, to load the minimum configuration to run. If that doesn't work, the motherboard may be going bad, or the hard drive is crashing.

Next, she can try restoring Windows by booting to her Windows DVD. Select the repair option, or if she has a backup already, she can reformat and reinstall. or reformat and reinstall. Leo says it's probably a good idea to just get a new hard drive while she's at it. They're pretty cheap these days.

Steve says he talked to Tech Support, and an Apple Genius, but had no luck. iTunes support says they're "investigating." Leo says that since credit card fraud is a serious problem in the iTunes store, his ID probably has been suspended until they discover the issue. If they don't contact him within a few days, email or write Tim Cook to escalate it.

Leo says that the easiest way is to import it to iTunes. Not all mp4s are encoded the same way, though, and it may not be compatible with the iPad. He did use Handbrake and used the iPad preset to encode it, so that should be fine.

When he connects the iPad to iTunes, it wants to erase the iPad. Leo says that's normal, and for copy protection reasons it won't let him sync that iPad to another computer. He could give his friend the file, he could import it to his iTunes library, and sync it to his iPad.

Another option is for his friend to select "manage iPad manually" when he connects it to iTunes. Then Steve should be able to drag files directly onto his friend's iPad in iTunes. He could also put the file in DropBox, and his friend could retrieve it with the DropBox app on his iPad.

Steve unlocked his T-Mobile phone when he went overseas, but when he came back to the US, T-Mobile locked it back down again. Leo said to ask T-Mobile to unlock it again, and they gave him a new unlock code. He can't get to the point where he can enter the code, though. Leo says he can try dialing the code in the dialer as if he's calling it, and that might unlock it.

Leo says when he gets his next phone, he should just buy it unlocked. It won't be subsidized, but then he can put other SIM cards in it and it will never be locked.

Garland says he's heard of DAC Industries, and was wondering what Leo thought of them. Leo prefers Crosley instead. They are designed just digitizing record and cassette collections. ION also makes some affordable options.

If he already has a record player and a computer, though, he can use what he already has. He can go to Radio Shack and get a preamp that he can then plug into his computer. Then he can just use Audacity to record it as it plays back.

Audience QuestionsHour 3

Unless the hard drive is 90% full, it won't be an issue at all. Even then, it might not actually make any difference. Installing more RAM will speed up his PC by as much as 20%, though. He can go to Crucial.com or Kingston.com, enter the model of his computer, and then he can find out what RAM he'll need. It's pretty easy to install it too.

Douglas just got the Audio Technica AT2020, and was wondering if that was a good choice. Leo says that's a great, very affordable mic and is USB powered. If he's going to be podcasting with someone else in the same room, he'll need more than one mic, though. He would also need a mixer, unless he wants to do this through Skype.

Unfortunately, Leo thinks this computer isn't worth fixing anymore. The problem is, to get someone at Apple to even look at it would cost $150-$200, which is more than what that computer would be worth. Leo suggests looking at getting a newer, used computer. Apple has a refurbished store where they sell Macs that are as good as new for several hundred dollars less. She also could look into a used or refurbished Mac Mini.

Getting her data out of the computer is another matter though. If there's important data on it, then she does need to spend some money to have someone pull the hard drive out of that computer and connect it to another computer.

Leo says Mac the Ripper won't work anymore because the MPAA took it down. Leo recommends Handbrake and VLC Media Player to do it. That will enable him to rip his DVDs pretty easily. The Chatroom recommends a few:

Leo thinks this is a cold solder, which is essentially a bad connection. "Reflowing the solder" should fix it, though. The repair shop wants $100 to do this, but Leo thinks he might be able to just get a better, new graphics card. But reflowing the solder should fix it.

This Week in Tech News

Tired of the intrusion into his privacy, Leo decided to quit Facebook last night. Leo says that when Facebook users take quizes on Facebook, the quiz maker gets access to ALL your personal information, as well as the information of your friends - without THEIR consent. And Leo says Facebook refuses to do anything about it.

Even worse, while Facebook assures members that the information won't be used in violation of Facebook's privacy policy, a whistle blower from the company said that is exactly what happened with Caimbridge Analytica. When the story came out, Facebook quickly banned the company in an attempt to get ahead of the bad news. Facebook has also given users the option to delete their personal data without having to cancel their account.

But this was the last straw for Leo, and he's out of there. But should he leave Twitter and Google as well? Google is a lot harder.

This week, Leo got the Samsung Galaxy S9 and it's not only got one of the best cameras ever, but DxOMark says the screen is practically perfect in every way. Leo also says he's pleased that the fingerprint reader was finally put in the right place. But what's strange for him is that there's not much difference between the Galaxy S9 and the Note 8. Maybe a faster processor and slightly smaller, but they're practically the same.

Leo also got a new HP Envy X2, which is the first laptop to run on an ARM processor. But even then, it's still running on Windows 10S.. That means it only runs 32 bit programs and only from the Windows app store. It has 4GB of RAM, 128GB of storage, plus a microSD card slot. It also weighs a pound and a half and fantastic battery life. HP says 22 hours, which means about 11 hours in reality. But Leo says he's getting more like 15-16 hours. Amazing. And it has LTE, all you need to do is put in a Google Fi SIM and Bob's your uncle. But at $1000, it's not cheap. And Leo says it's really SLOW. Chrome is also really slow on it.
Leo's recommendation ... there's a lot to like, but he wouldn't recommend buying it.

Magic Leap has been a company that's been all hype and no action for years, despite all of the great demos they have on their website. Now the company says it's making a prototype that looks like welder's glasses for augmented reality. This means it would put virtual things on top of the real world, so you're not completely isolated like you would be with virtual reality. Magic Leap says it will release its system to developers sometime this year. It features glasses, a small Discman sized computer that can attach to your belt, and a controller.

Magic Leap just raised half a billion dollars more for this from Saudi Arabia. They got 502 million dollars in October, and have received more than 2.3 billion dollars in funding so far from a variety of investors.

With Ready Player One set to come out later this year, Leo says there are a ton of virtual reality exhibitions at the annual South by Southwest Interactive Festival this week in Austin. Leo also saw a mockup WestWorld outside of Austin. Tickets sold out in minutes.

According to a new study, the more outrageous fake news tweets you see on Twitter, the more likely it will be retweeted, while actual news only gets retweeted about 1/4 of the time. Leo says that this is driving many to give up the social media app altogether. And those who have stayed, Leo says it works as an outrage engine to rage at the machine.